#real queer america lgbt stories from red states

[pansyboybloom]

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, by Samantha Allen - A Review (8 out of 10)

"That's precisely the question we asked ourselves on November 9th. To stay, or not to stay? I found my answer at the top of the pride flag: there's no way of course that the color of its first stripe was a commentary on our geographically divided political climate. Red didn't mean Republican and blue didn't mean Democrat until the year 2000 anyway. Red is simply the first color in the rainbow, not a sign from the cosmos for me personally. But back when Gilbert Baker first designed that now ubiquitous emblem of LGBT rights in 1978 he did want that red stripe to signify life."

Samantha Allen, a reporter, wife, and transgender woman who was raised in Utah amidst the heart of the Mormon Church and left the South and its redness behind after beginning her transition, asked herself the questions that many Americans, especially queer ones, asked themselves after Donald Trump's win in the United States Presidential race in 2016. But, instead of moving out to Canada, Samantha decided to move down. Down to Utah, Texas, Indiana, and other red states that had seemingly made it clear that she and people like her weren't wanted, to answer a question that she couldn't shake:

Why weren't the Southern queers leaving?

"What makes an oasis, an oasis?"

In Real Queer America, Allen snakes through the south to pockets of queer safe havens ranging from queer bars in small rural towns, to LGBT shelters across from Mormon temples, to protests in Austin, TX, and places of safety throughout all of red America, no matter how small

As a Southerner, this book called to me. It was written with love, with the respect that only a Southern queer can give to other Southern queers. Allen examines the parts of the queer South that those outside its borders might struggle to understand, like LGBT youth political groups that work with the Mormon church to secure transgender rights in Utah. The chapter on Utah struck me in particular. I won't pretend to have any good opinions of the Mormon establishment, but the fondness Allen has for the community who raised her, even after it hurt her, is mind-blowing. Hearing from people like an ex-Mormon radical who works hand in hand with the church to secure LGBT safety, a mother who is deeply supportive of her transgender son because of her Mormoness, not despite it, a gay youth rights advocate who stated in the heart of Mormonism out of an unshakable faith in the goodness in the people of Utah, and, most remarkable, a trans man who has been told by the church that, should he continue his medical transition, he would be excommunicated, but chooses to love God anyways.

Of course, another favorite chapter was that on Texas. As a Texan, I am all too familiar with names like Paxton and Abbott, but also Wendy Davis and the Briggle family. Allen shows the Briggle family as human, and continues that humanity into her trek into the Rio Grande Valley, an often forgotten part of the state, demonized by both the North for its poverty and the South for its tie to immigration from Mexico. Allen approaches the complexities of race interacting with queerness with attempted grace, but her analysis seems to fall flat-- something she acknowledges later on, in Indiana, in which she has in-depth conversations with a black trans woman on how while Allen may feel safe holding hands with her wife here, her blackness will forever keep the 'queer eutopia' she lives in from truly being safe.

She tells Allen: "There is a difference, it seems, between an oasis and a eutopia. When you're in a desert, an oasis can be a single well of water in the sand, or in this case, one college town with an incredible queer bar. A watering hole doesn't make the desert safe, it just makes it habitable. Even then, when you arrive at the refuge that is Bloomington, so much of your experience here depends on the identities you bring with you. And eutopias? Well, eutopias don't exist. If they did, every LGBT person in the country would move there, and queer making would end."

Allen also carries some of the uncomfortable, if not plain disheartening, pro-veteran beliefs quintessential to the South, spending a long time speaking in depth with veterans surrounding Trump's trans military ban. She repeatedly references a shirt she saw while at an Austin rally: I fought for your right to hate me. The reverence she holds and the anger she feels for veterans was upsetting at times and showed further Allen's privilege.

Still, Allen's beliefs need not be perfect in a book about how the Northern need for perfection leads to the Southern LGBT community being abandoned. This abandonment is mentioned in the Indiana chapter when discussing Mike Pence and his 'return to religious freedom' act, which lead to North wide economic protests and boycotts-- that affected the queers of Indiana far more economically than it did Pence. It was grassroots organizations and local state fighters that pushed back the collection of bills, and many, like the ones Allen interviewed, felt abandoned by blue states that seemed to care more about protesting through inaction than action.

Grassroots education, safety, activism, and community are a recurring theme in Real Queer America, unsurprising to any rural or Southern queer. One such example is the Back Door, a queer bar-- not gay, but specifically queer, an active choice maybe by the "dyke daddy" of the club-- that serves as a bastion of fun and sex in a rural town, but also as a place to come together and practice activism.

"The 'Back Door' is a perfect example of the red state queer ethos-- that being politically active is a responsibility, not a choice."

Allen stresses one thing above all: community. The queer chosen family, and the queering of friendships, she argues, are just as threatening to the average bigot as her sex life or her gender identity, if not more. Together, Southern queers thrive-- something many Northerns don't see. Allen critiques Northern journalism from her own writing background, citing that Northerners only care about Southern queer lives when a politician is passing a bathroom bill, a gunman is shooting up a night club, or a high school has their first trans homecoming king, not out of a desire to share his joy, but to further stress how backward the South is. Amidst the shared meals with bisexuals in Tennessee, watching the dancing queers of the Back Door, the support groups across from Mormon temples, the protests in Austin, and more, Allen asks the reader, is the most radical thing to do as a queer person to simply live and love? Is living, thriving, fighting together, arm in arm-- is all of this what being queer in the South means? She finds answers in each place she goes, and while I will leave her answer up to the reader, I find her comment when meeting with the trans cafe owner of Allen's college youth to shine clear:

"Watching Rachel run her own small business in south central Indiana was my first vision of a future where I turn out okay."

Please, check to see if your local library or bookstores have Real Queer America before buying on Amazon! Let's support local reading!

[sweeterboylove]

🍒 soft faggotry 🍒

(18+ space; minors please do not interact)

Emil/Anthony, 24 year old aromantic homosexual. I'm a trans man (post top surgery, on T pellets, saving up for phallo) and as close to a hopeless romantic as an aro person can be. I use he/him and rot/rots. I do not use they/them. Big fan of lip gloss and skater skirts, and love a man in tight levis. My gayness and transness are intrinsically linked. This blog occassionally has soft-core nsft. I don't toss around slurs willy-nilly, but I do use fag often enough and am unlikely to tag it. however, I always tag slurs when used in a negative context.

If you want to talk real world problems, come see my old gay-blog-turned-something-political blog @pansyboybloom. Transmisogyny is rampant in this community, and (trans)misandery/androphobia is not possible in a patriarchal society. Free Palestine, no conditions.

this is a safe space for all mlm and nlm, not just male ones. fem/women mlm, fem/women nblm, bigender, multigender, genderfluid, etc. if you id as mlm or nblm, you are wanted. that being said, as an aro binary trans gay man, this content will focus more on my lived experience

non mlm and nblm queer ppl are appreciated and welcome! my main is @transskywardsword

Slowly trying to read more, so I occasionally liveblog books. Read so far:

- Cruising: An Intimate History of a Radical Pastime (Alex Espinoza) - Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and Scapegoating of Femininity; 2nd Edition (Julia Serano) - Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States (Samantha Allen)

(disclaimer: I am religious. I will never talk about it here and am fully against evangelicalism and missionary conversion work, but if my spirituality makes you uncomfortable, feel free to leave, absolutely no hard feelings!)

how to use rot/rots pronouns:

Subject Pronoun - rot

Object Pronoun - rot

Possessive Determiner - rots

Possessive Pronoun - rots

Reflexive Pronoun - rotself

[highkingpetermagnificent]

24 in 2024

I meant to do this in January, but life keeps marching on despite my efforts. I stole this from @aliteraryprincess because it just looks fun!! This is 24 books I want to read in 2024 (not including ones I've already read or am currently reading.) These are in no particular order.

Bronze Drum, Phong Nguyen (fiction) (already own, just unread)

Lady Chatterley's Lover, D.H. Lawrence (classic)

Edward IV: A Source Book, Keith Dockray (nonfiction) (already own, just unread)

Lavinia, Ursula K. Le Guin (fiction) (already own, just unread)

Under the Skin: The Hidden Toll of Racism on American Lives and on the Health of Our Nation, Linda Villarosa (nonfiction)

Modern Paganism in World Cultures: Comparative Perspectives, Michael Strmiska (nonfiction) (already own, just unread)

She Would Be King, Wayétu Moore (fiction) (already own, just unread)

The Peacekeeper, B.L. Blanchard (fiction) (already own, just unread)

Tress of the Emerald Sea, Brandon Sanderson (fiction)

Medieval York, D.M. Palliser (nonfiction)

She Had Some Horses, Joy Harjo (poetry) (already own, just unread)

The Mysteries of Udolpho, Ann Radcliffe (classic) (already own, just unread)

Object Lessons: The Life of the Woman and the Poet in Our Time, Eavan Boland (essays?) (already own, just unread)

Noblewomen, Aristocracy and Power in the Twelfth-Century Anglo-Norman Realm, Susan M. Johns (nonfiction) (already own, just unread)

Hood Feminism: Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot, Mikki Kendall (nonfiction)

Katherine Parr: Complete Works and Correspondence, Katherine Parr (essays/letters) (already own, just unread)

Daughter of the Moon Goddess, Sue Lynn Tan (fiction) (already own, just unread)

Blood and Roses: One Family's Struggle and Triumph During the Tumultous Wars of the Roses, Helen Castor (nonfiction) (already own, just unread)

If I Were Another: Poems, Mahmoud Darwish (poetry)

Always Italicise: How to Write While Colonised, Alice Te Punga Somerville (poetry)

Black Swim, Nicholas Goodly (poetry)

Sight Lines, Arthur Sze (poetry)

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States, Samantha Allen (nonfiction) (already own, just unread)

Within the Fairy Castle: Colleen Moore's Doll House, Terry Ann R. Neff (idk how to label this, this is my last pick just for fun) (already own, just unread)

If you want to do this, steal it from me and tag me!

[audikatia]

I'll be honest, it was a lot of rereads this year because 1) I love rereading favs and 2) so many of the new books I read this year were just eh.

Total list with ratings below:

Wise Gals: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Maid by Nita Prose ⭐️⭐️

Book Lovers by Emily Henry ⭐️⭐️

Hidden Pictures by Jason Rekulak ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Agent Josephine: American Beauty, French Beauty, British Spy by Damien Lewis ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Pallbearer’s Club by Paul Tremblay ⭐️⭐️

Harry Potter and the Art of Spying by Lynn M. Boughey ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Golden Boys by Phil Stamper ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Honeys by Ryan La Sala ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lessons in Chemistry by Bonnie Garmus ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The 99 Boyfriends of Micah Summers by Adam Sass ⭐️

Teen Titans: Beast Boy Loves Raven by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Teen Titans: Robin by Kami Garcia and Gabriel Picolo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bad Gays: a Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My Dearest Darkest by Kayla Cottingham ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Killers of a Certain Age by Deanna Raybourn  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Woman in the Window by A. J. Finn ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

It’s Not Summer Without You by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

We’ll Always Have Summer by Jenny Han ⭐️⭐️

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seige and Storm by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rise and Ruin by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Everyone in My Family has Killed Someone by Benjamin Stevenson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Rogues: True Stories of Grifters, Killers, Rebels, and Crooks by Patrick Raddon Keefe ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Bravely by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Afterglow by Phil Stamper ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Good Girl, Bad Blood by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

As Good as Dead by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Monster’s Bones: The Discovery of T. Rex and How It Shook Our World by David K. Randall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Five Survive by Holly Jackson ⭐️⭐️

Spell Bound by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Murder Your Employer: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Our Wives Under the Sea by Julia Armfield ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

King of Scars by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Fake Dates and Mooncakes by Sher Lee ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Carry On by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wayward Son by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Any Way the Wind Blows by Rainbow Rowell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

We Could Be So Good by Cat Sebastian ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Brooklyn was Queer by Hugh Ryan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Something Wild and Wonderful by Anita Kelly ⭐️⭐️

Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Only One Left by Riley Sager ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Opal by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Next by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

One of Us is Back by Karen M. McManus ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Liar City by Allie Therin ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

In Deeper Waters by F.T. Lukens ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The World Without Us by Alan Weisman ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Entangled Life by Merlin Sheldrake ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Seriously, Murder? by Monica Hoopes ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Awakening by Kate Chopin ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Drift by C. J. Tudor ⭐️⭐️

Scones and Scofflaws by Jane Gorman ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️

The Salt Grows Heavy by Cassandra Khaw ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Ten Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Wolfsong by TJ Klune ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman ⭐️⭐️

How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix ⭐️⭐️

Small Favors by Erin A. Craig ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Raven King by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

All the King’s Men by Nora Sakavic ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Christine by Stephen King ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Male Gazed by Manuel Betancourt ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Haunting of Alejandra by V. Castro ⭐️⭐️

Hemlock Island by Kelley Armstrong ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Truly Devious by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Vanishing Stair by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Hand on the Wall by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Nine by Maureen Johnson ⭐️⭐️

The Iliad by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Art Thief by Michael Finkel ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon ⭐️⭐️

Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Gwen and Art are Not in Love by Lex Croucher ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When Crack was King by Donovan X. Ramsey ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Slippery Creatures by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

The Sugared Game by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Subtle Blood by K. J. Charles ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Monsters by Claire Dederer ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Allergic by Theresa McPhail ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

[onebluebookworm]

30 Days of Literary Pride 2023 - June 22

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States- Samantha Allen

[libraryleopard]

October reads

= reread

Saint Juniper’s Folly by Alex Crespo

Catalog of Unabashed Gratitude by Ross Gay

Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote

Always the Almost by Edward Underhill

Native Guard by Natasha Trethewey

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States by Samantha Allen

Through the Woods by Emily Carroll*

And Don’t Look Back by Rebecca Barrow

A Trans Man Walks Into a Gay Bar by Harry Nicholas 

The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian

A Guest in the House by Emily Carroll

The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas

The September House by Carissa Orlando

Deephaven by Ethan M. Aldridge

Firebird by Sunmi 

Wylding Hall by Elizabeth Hand*

Moby Dyke by Krista Burton

The Scratch Daughters by H.A. Clarke

An Island Princess Starts a Scandal by Adriana Herrera

The Winter Knight by Jes Battis

The Perfect Guy Doesn’t Exist by Sophie Gonzales

The Devouring Wolf by Natalie C. Parker

Monstrous Regiment by Terry Pratchett

Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane

Against Heaven by Kemi Alabi

Rifqa by Mohammed El-Kurd

Water and Salt by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha

They Never Learn by Layne Fargo

Your New Feeling is the Artifact of a Bygone Era by Chad Bennett

[mayuzumiiis]

Tagged by @vikingpoteto!

Thanks, I love tag games sm <3

3 ships: Ohh... Spuriken (Genji/Cassidy | OW/OW2), MinAki (Minato Arisato/Akihiko Sanada | Persona 3), OriginShipping (Steven Stone/Wallace | Pokemon RSE/ORAS)

Last song: Deep Breath Deep Breath by Lotus Juice (Persona 3)

Last movie: Spirited Away

Currently reading: Real Queer America, LGBT stories from red states by Samantha Allen

Currently watching: SPY x FAMILY, Bluey

Currently consuming: Literally all of Josh Strife Hayes' "Worst MMO Ever?" videos on YT

Craving: Kitty cuddles

Tagging, uh... anyone that wants to do this! You can say I tagged you if you want.

[galaxseacreature]

34 & 39 for the book asks!

34. What’s a book you’ve recommended the most this year?

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie continues to be my go-to book recommendation whenever asked, particularly for scifi fans. An anti-imperialist novel with main character who was a starship AI on a quest for personal revenge against the emperor? Amazing world building that extends to diverse cultures outside the empire? No gender? Hard to beat!

Out of the books I actually read this year I found myself recommending The Three-Body problem by Cixin Liu for a serious, slowly unfolding hard scifi epic and Sixteen Ways to Defend a Walled City by K. J. Parker for a funny, fast paced adventure with a reluctantly heroic but sarcastic and unreliable narrator.

Honorable mention to Dracula (Daily) ofc, although I don't think I convinced anyone irl to join me that wasn't already subject to immense internet peer pressure about it.

39. Five books you absolutely want to read next year?

Oooh this is tricky because I hate planning, don't often keep track of new releases, and I love to just wander the library and see what stands out. Nevertheless! I have a few things in my sights:

The Dark Forest by Cixin Liu (had to let the first one stew awhile but now I'm itching to keep going with this series)

Pests: How Humans Create Animal Villains by Bethany Brookshire (I don't read a lot of nonfiction but this is right up my alley)

A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (it has been recommended to me a lot recently)

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen (my queer bookclub read this and I was so excited for it but ended up being too busy that month)

My Body by Emily Ratajkowski (kind of a default pick since I already have it checked out of the library, it was an impulse though not a highly anticipated pick)

[nerds-in-wonderland]

🌈History Is Gay Books🌈

Real Queer America

By: Samantha Allen

"A transgender reporter's narrative tour through the surprisingly vibrant queer communities sprouting up in red states, offering a vision of a stronger, more humane America.

Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a senior Daily Beast reporter happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts.

In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more.

Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times."

~Alice 🌌

[jawbone-xylophone]

I definitely appreciate this post, but for my fellow kids who still have no idea what gay panic is I’m adding on the definition. Telling us the colloquial definition is wrong is helpful, yeah, but telling us it’s dangerous to be uneducated is less useful than giving a definition that explains WHY it’s dangerous.

Because you just know that most people on this website don’t look up things they don’t understand, they just reblog and move on at most. So! I’ll make this easy.

According to Wikipedia:

The gay panic defense or homosexual advance defence is a strategy of legal defense, which refers to a situation in which a heterosexual individual charged with a violent crime against a homosexual (or bisexual) individual claims they lost control and reacted violently because of an unwanted sexual advance that was made upon them.

And to make things worse:

The trans panic defense is a closely related legal strategy applied in cases of assault or murder of a transgender individual with whom the assailant(s) had engaged in or was close to engaging in sexual relations with and claim to have been unaware that the victim was transgender, producing in the attacker an alleged trans panic reaction, often a manifestation of transphobia.

Tl;dr, “this person is queer and it freaked me out so much I killed them” is a valid excuse in Real Murder Cases.

This is not unique to America, with South Australia banning the defense in 2020, New Zealand banning the defense in 2009, and the UK having a cute little name for it, calling it the “Portsmouth defense” or the “guardsman’s defense”.

From a quick look at the internet I’m not actually sure what the most recent case of it being used in court is, because American states are still voting on whether or not to ban the gay panic defense on an individual state-by-state basis, despite the fact that according to this article “In 2013, the American Bar Association unanimously approved a resolution that called on state legislatures to ban the defenses”.

2013.

I was in high school. That’s when Harlem Shake was a thing, Spiders Georg was born as a meme, and Pacific Rim came out in theatres.

I’m going to take a minute to plug my favorite book on queer history, The Deviant's War: The Homosexual vs. the United States of America by Eric Cervini, if anyone wants to read up more on the topic.

📚 Others on the reading list:

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories From Red States by Samantha Allen

The Men with the Pink Triangle by Heinz Heger

The Lavender Scare: The Cold War Persecution of Gays and Lesbians in the Federal Government by David K. Johnson

And the Band Played On: Politics, People, and the AIDS Epidemic by Randy Shilts

Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton

The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies by Vito Russo

🎙️ For those of you who can’t read for various reasons, I have some podcasts:

Making Gay History

The Log Books

Memories from the Dance Floor

Good luck out there, my fellow queers.

The epidemic of young queers ignoring or cherrypicking queer history is really biting us all in the ass because Montana just tabled the bill that banned trans and gay panic, and many of the younger queers I’ve come across have no idea what gay panic really is, or what that means.

All they know about gay panic is the “Oh my gosh! I talked to a pretty girl/boy and I’m a girl/boy hehe so flustered” that at some point replaced the actual meaning of gay panic. Do you know how dangerous this is, that they don’t know of the dangers of trans and gay panic? It’s lethal.

As things in the US become more dire for the queer community, I’m begging the young queers: read up on queer - our, your - history. Talk to your elder queers. Really look into current politics surrounding the queer community. Don’t get all your info from social media, and absolutely do not take what you see on social media at face-value. Get yourself educated and prepared for what’s to come. It’ll save lives, I promise you. 

[pansyboybloom]

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, please be better than Gay Club, pls pls pls plsssss

[bllsbailey]

Insane Woman Hacked Up Her Dad on Election Night. Did Trump's Win Pushed Her Over the Edge?

This is an older story that happened on election night on the West Coast. It’s a story of possible Trump derangement, the 2024 election, and cold-blooded murder. It did not get a lot of attention for multiple reasons, not least being Donald Trump and the Republicans winning the 2024 election.

The woman who hacked her dad to death over keeping the light on is married to a transgender who is also an editor for Them magazine. So, you can see how this flew under the radar. The murder was brutal and seems to paint a picture of total lunacy. Corey Burke is the suspect, her spouse is Samantha Allen, who are described as a “power lesbian” couple (via NY Post): 

Corey Burke considered the bloody rampage — in which she allegedly strangled, bit and hacked her 67-year-old father in the $800,000 Seattle home they shared — an “act of liberation,” charging documents allege.  Burke, 33, is a training program manager at Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ spacecraft company, according to her LinkedIn, and is married to prominent transgender writer Samantha Leigh Allen, public records show.  Allen is the author of the acclaimed book “Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States” and an editor at Them, a Conde Nast transgender news publication.  The killing was meant to “help people change their attachment to their parents” and “had to happen today,” Burke told police, her face covered in her father’s blood, according to court documents.  Burke had been upset about the election and knew Trump would handily beat Vice President Kamala Harris when she allegedly snapped — apparently when her father, Timothy Burke, refused to turn off the lights.  She then went upstairs, grabbed an ice “pickax,” tripped her father, choked and bit him on the floor, and struck him repeatedly with the blunt and sharp ends of the tool, police said.  Burke sat down next to her father and watched him die, then smashed all the windows in the house in what she described as “an act of liberation,” officers reported.  When cops arrived, they found Burke “clapping … because she was so happy.”

This incident is going to be turned into a movie. Also, what a psychopath. It seems that unhinged left-wing reactions were local and, at times, tragic, but there were no mass riots. It’s almost as if the Left is exhausted, though cities did board up prominent shop fronts all the same. 

Killing your parent is an “act of liberation” because they support Trump. Lock her up and throw away the key.

Trending on Townhall Videos

[harperhargravesantifiction]

A Reading List For Death Rattle Fans- HH

Sartre Of Being and Nothingness

Ethics of ambiguity Simone De Beauvoir

Whose Story Is This? Old conflicts New Chapters Rebecca Solnit

The Botany of Desire Michael Pollan

Real Queer America LGBT Stories From Red States Samantha Allen

Man's search for meaning Victor E. FRankl

Mind Journey to the heart of being human Daniel. J Siegel MD

CJ Jung Dreams

Well of loneliness Radcliffe hall

[irohshotleafjuice]

I really don’t have time to read anything other than text books these days (full time work, full time grad student, and new parent) but I did read one non-fiction this year that I really loved!

Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen

Okay okay let’s be constructive:

What is your favorite nonfiction book that you’ve read in the last year?

[ardentpages]

"Real Queer America is the product of a six-week-long cross-country road trip through LGBT communities in red states. ...When I told friends and family I was writing this book, their immediate response was usually one of concern: 'Be careful.' I get it. This might seem like a frightening time to be queer in the U.S.A., let alone for a transgender reporter to cross its most conservative regions by car. ...

But in my experience, too many folks in liberal enclaves are under the misconception that the anti-LGBT bigots who backed Trump wield uncontested control over conservative parts of the country. Some still think that red states are irredeemable cesspools of hatred, to be avoided at all costs. 'Flyover country' they call it, dangerously assured of their own relative safety and moral superiority. Never mind reports of anti-transgender violence in places such as Bushwick, Brooklyn, or Capitol Hill, Seattle — both neighborhoods where no one would ever warn me to 'be careful.'

Real Queer America is an attempt to document what’s actually happening in the 'real America' that more and more LGBT people are calling home — to capture some of the progressive cultural shifts that people on the coasts don’t read enough about in a media environment that focuses mostly on a handful of horrific incidents and regressive laws.

It’s not that red states don’t have problems; they do. As an LGBT journalist, I spend much of my time reporting on anti-transgender 'bathroom bills' and other red-state attacks on my rights. But places are so much more than their laws. And the only way for people on the coasts to understand how states such as Mississippi, Texas, and Tennessee are evolving is to stop flying over them and start going to them. Nothing could be queerer than getting out of your comfort zone."

- Samantha Allen in Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States (2019)

[smulnsander]

If you ever made coments abt how ppl in red states deserved any suffering over the years from natural disasters cuz their in a red state or whatever i going to decapitate u ok?